Who owns your data?

Description

Looking forward to 2035, the trajectory of surveillance capitalism holds critical implications for society. Without robust intervention, continuous technological advances in AI-driven monitoring and facial recognition could normalize comprehensive, invasive surveillance, threatening civil liberties and autonomy. Experts warn of increasing potential for discrimination and manipulation based on extensive, unchecked personal data profiling. Conversely, proactive regulations and empowered consumers could drive meaningful change, establishing personal data privacy as a fundamental right. Companies might be compelled to abandon surveillance-driven profits in favor of ethical, consent-based innovation, dramatically reshaping the digital economy. Thus, the fight over data ownership and privacy is poised to profoundly affect individuals, businesses, and governments, ultimately shaping the democratic foundations of our digital future.

Speakers

Cory Doctorow

Special Advisor, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ross Dahlke

Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Tristan Naumann

Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research

Ghaleb Abdulla

Senior Member of Technical Staff, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Guided Questions

Cory Doctorow

In your nonfiction work The Internet Con, you highlight how monopolistic tech platforms rely on surveillance-based business models through lock-in and degraded user experiences, which depend on harvesting personal data. In the context of surveillance capitalism, what concrete steps can we take to break this cycle? Specifically, how do we enact systems that empower individual data ownership and counter monopolies, while still preserving innovation and user trust?

Ross Dahlke

Much of your work examines how information exposure and effects unfold both on the open web and in private channels like messaging apps. Could you explore how surveillance-driven targeting across both public and private platforms amplifies or limits the impact of AI-powered persuasion? Specifically, what does your research tell us about the trade-offs between broad data collection versus more focused social-context strategies, and how might this inform privacy-focused designs in future digital systems?

Tristan Naumann

Given your work at Microsoft Research’s Health Futures group to transform complex, unstructured health data into actionable insights, how do we reconcile the societal benefits of health-data-driven discovery, like early detection and personalized treatment, with the ethical and privacy risks of collecting and processing personal medical information? Specifically, what strategies are most viable for ensuring that patient data empowers health outcomes without reinforcing surveillance, data misuse, or restricted autonomy?

Ghaleb Abdulla

Given your work with AQSim on approximate queries for massive simulation datasets and insights into the power of large-scale data systems , how do you see the lessons from these scientific applications translating to civilian sectors, particularly when it comes to ownership, control, and privacy of data? Can the tools and governance models developed for collaborative scientific research be adapted to commercial and public systems to ensure ethical handling of large personal datasets?